The Denver Nuggets Trade for Arron Afflalo, Walter Sharpe

The Denver Nuggets front office has pulled off another spectacular trade as they have acquired Arron Afflalo and Walter Sharpe for a second round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.That pick is slated to be the lower of the two second rounders the Nuggets currently own in 2011, their own and Portland’s.Unless both of those teams fall apart over the next two seasons that pick should be in the fifties.

When news broke that this trade was a possibility I figured Denver would have to give up the Clippers second round pick they own an option on in the 2010 draft.The fact they took on not only Afflalo’s salary, but Walter Sharpe’s salary too it lowered the price to what will likely be one of the final picks in the 2011 draft plus Detroit threw in $350,000 in cash.Denver was able to land a replacement for Dahntay Jones and a cheap end of the bench prospect in Sharpe for virtually nothing.

Over the previous three summers the Nuggets have acquired J.R. Smith, Renaldo Balkman and now Afflalo and Sharpe for nothing but second round picks, nonguaranteed contracts and/or trade exceptions.Obviously the Smith trade with Chicago was one of the best trades in recent NBA history.Balkman is a very intriguing player who will possibly fill a greater role in 2009-10 and now Afflalo is another rotation player that Denver has brought in at little to no cost.As much attention as the Chauncey Billups trade received it is smaller deals like these that can round out the roster of a contending team.

Afflalo is not a supremely talented player, but he is very solid.He is a very good defender and in his two seasons with the Pistons has adapted to the NBA three point line very well.His rookie season Afflalo only made 20.8% of his 48 attempts.Last season he more than doubled his three point attempts to 107 and despite taking more shots he nearly doubled his percentage as well to an impressive 40.2%.

The difference between the two seasons was Afflalo’s ability to hit the three from the left corner.In his rookie season of 2007-08 Afflalo was 0-9.In 2008-09 he shot 24-44 which equates to 54.5% (you will have to pick the criteria yourself to see his percentages as the URL does not update when you make your selection).Strangely, he only shot 9-31, 29.0%, from the right corner.The two shots are not exact duplicates of each other, but they are close and over time I suspect his percentage from the left corner will drop a bit while his percentage from the right corner will rise.Nevertheless, it is significant that he was able to show such strong improvement between his first and second seasons.If he can continue to improve, he will be a very good offensive weapon.

As we all know there is much more to offense than just shooting open jumpers.So far Afflalo has not shown much more than an ability to catch and shoot.He has not posted very good assist numbers, but I believe that is more due to his role as a catch and shoot player than an inability to pass.He does not have blazing speed, but is a decent drive a kick player.He can dribble with either hand and I believe can answer the call if asked to fill a more significant role on offense.The good news is with players like Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Billups and Nene, Denver does not need Afflalo to come in and light up the scoreboard.

Defensively Afflalo is not great, but can certainly fill the role of the defensive oriented shooting guard.In Detroit he guarded point guards, shooting guards and even small forwards from time to time.He works hard and is very focused.He fights over screens well and has shown the ability to chase players around screens.The one thing he needs to work on is his strength at the point of contact as he tends to give up too much space when the offensive player bumps him to get a shot off.

Afflalo will never be a star, but he is the kind of highly competent player that championship teams need.He may never drive Chris Paul as nuts as Dahntay Jones did, but he has the ability to be just as good a defender game after game while providing much more punch on the offensive end.

There has been some great discussion the past couple days as to whether or not J.R. Smith or Afflalo should start.The good news is we do not need to have an answer for that question yet.While there is no doubt the Nuggets were much worse with Jones on the floor than J.R., I do not think that is a fair argument for keeping Afflalo out of the starting lineup.Afflalo is a much better all around player than Jones and I do not think he would be as much of a drop off from J.R. as Jones was. Personally I would start J.R., but it would not surprise me, especially if Denver loses Linas Kleiza, if Karl decides he needs Smith’s offense off the bench and Afflalo takes the court to start each half.

One interesting tidbit that was pointed out by reader Ky Davis is according to John Hollinger the player Afflalo is most like is none other than former Nugget stalwart Bryant Stith. I think most Nugget fans would gladly take a player of that caliber.

The one man who may be in trouble with the addition of Afflalo is Anthony Carter.Afflalo can provide that end of game defense that Karl craves, but until the Nuggets know they can count on Ty Lawson, Carter will probably still be in their plans.

In the next day or two look for some video of Afflalo to give you all a better idea of what he is capable of.Plus Afflalo is not the only player involved in the trade.Look for a post on Walter Sharpe, with rarely seen footage from the 2008 summer league, in the near future as well.

By the way thanks to those of you who emailed me news of the trade while I was fighting off rain and near hurricane force winds at Water World with my family.

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Just and FYI . . on the ESPN Trade Machine the Atkins trade exception in 2M and change, while the Iverson one reamins at 9.8M. If this is accurate, the Nugs elected to keep the big trade exception in one piece. We have six weeks left to use it.